In Simplistic Circumstances
by MissKylieKarma
Summary: Zak Bagans' friendship and life is turned upside down by one girl- Macy- who breaks his heart- and much more.  Rated M for language and possibly future adult themes.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

I looked at Aaron. He was crying. What was happening? Why was the world crashing down so suddenly? My name is Zak Bagans, and my life has broken.

"Zak, love," Payten said, "come here!"

I walked into my quaint kitchen, tired and grumpy. Today didn't seem like a day to love someone.

"You look like hell!" she exclaimed, she looked beautiful with such messy, napped hair.

"I know." I said, climbing onto the counter watching her make dinner from across the small room. She kept looking up at me with her innocent green eyes. The look that made me feel so helpless.

"You need more sleep. You need to stop staying up so late watching reruns of your stupid wrestling."

"What?" I was surprised at her tone. I knew she didn't care for the wresting I watched, and we joked around about it constantly, but this time she seemed genuinely angry,

"I don't even know if it's that- Zak, you aren't nearly as focused anywhere anymore. I swear, you come home and you seem to be in a daze 24/7." She must've seen the confused look on my face as she continued. "I'm just. . . worried about you. I love you."

I slipped down and paced across to her and held her close. I kissed her temple as I said "I love you, Payten."

I tickled her waist and we laughed together for the first time in days.

Peyton and I had been dating for 7 months, living together for 2. I knew I loved her after the 4th date, and it turns out she is the best roommate ever.

The phone rang, with it's blaring tone. The caller ID said Goodwin Residents. I reached to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey Zak, it's Aaron."

"Oh hey Aaron," I said, relaxing a bit; I did not want to talk to _her_.

"I was wondering if you and Payten wanted to go out with us tonight. Grab some drinks at Alula and maybe talk, the four of us?" He sounded sincere enough.

"That sounds good. I'll fill Payten in on it."

"'Kay, cool. See you later, brah."

"See ya."

I was genuinely surprised that he would ask me. Maybe he had finally realized what _she_ was doing to our friendship. But maybe it was setup so _she_ could corner us to try and make us believe _her._ All I knew is that was **not** going to happen.

"Hey babe," I started to Peyton, "Aaron just called to ask us if we wanted to hook up with him and Macy at Alula tonight; wanna go?"

"Hmm," she hesitated, "would it be good see them now? It was only a couple weeks ago."

"It's fine! We're not going to make a scene like before. It wasn't worth it." I said, flashing a pleading smile. I had missed Aaron, and I wasn't going to let his new idiotic girlfriend come between our real friendship.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

><p>Payten continued looking at me with hesitation. Almost every time she looked at me, I felt terrible about embarrassing her in public like that.<p>

The situation I'm talking about happened about 2 and 1/2 weeks ago. We were out at a small Italian restaurant- Payten, Aaron, Macy and I. It was my first time meeting Macy. Peyton and I had gotten there earlier than them, and had already encountered some cute fans asking for a picture or two. Finally Macy and Aaron arrived; my first impression of Macy was that she was really pretty. She looked remarkably like Peyton; long, dark brown hair, deep green eyes, with a soft, curved, and beautiful figure. But the difference between the two's appearance was that Macy had a sort of sneer of a smile. They approached our table and greeted us, Macy peering at Peyton and I with a light gaze and smirk.

The first half an hour were nice, we asked Macy simple, friendly questions. We all had had a sip or two of wine by then. We were laughing about a joke Aaron had cracked when a young girl came up to me. She asked for an autograph on a napkin and a picture. I politely obliged and afterwards she had gone as quickly as she came. I turned back to our table to a truly piercing stare from Macy. Aaron was smiling quietly to himself and Payten was looking at Macy in slight confusion. Her stare could have stopped an angry lion in its tracks. She continued to seemingly stare through to the back of my head, and soon enough Aaron noticed and tried to lighten the slightly tense mood with another dry joke.

'Heh, those fangirls will never be able to take their eyes off of you, you hunk!'

I smiled and quickly glanced at Macy again, but she continued with the glare.

'I can already tell how _fun_ and _uninterrupted_ our future get-togethers will be.' Our table filled with looks to Macy, the narrator of the obviously sarcastic comment.

'Hey, come on Macy.' Aaron pleaded in a quiet steady voice. He had put a hand on her forearm to try to calm her.

'I have a difficult enough time saving you from those bitch fangirls during our dinners already, Aaron. I don't need this kid's fame getting in the way too.' She shook her head at me. I was getting agitated.

Aaron sensed my annoyance and started 'Babe calm down, it was one girl-'

'Sure. But soon enough there'll be more and more and… ugh!' she grunted.

I finally cut in. 'Macy, hey. I'm sorry'

'Up yours.' She spat out. Aaron nudged her and said in soft voice 'Hey! Jesus, Macy, are you drunk?'

'Fuck you I'm drunk!' she said with a serious tone. As I think about it she really didn't sound tipsy at all.

We looked at her with disbelief. Was she like this after just a few sips of wine? Aaron gave us a sorrowful look and whispered something to her. She nodded her head and picked up her purse to seemingly leave. Aaron came over to Payten and I while she gathered her food. 'Guys… I'm so sorry. I don't know what's up with her tonight. She's really an angel.'

'Hah! Some angel' I said, a little too loud. Macy presumably heard me.

'You got something to say pretty boy?' she glared me down once again.

I sat there and glared back, holding myself back from saying something awful- I hadn't liked her attitude so far. Aaron went back over to Macy to tear through the tense staring.

'Okay, well it was great seeing you both! We'll catch you later!' he blared, smiling as best he could. Payten flashed a small, sweet smile and said goodbye.

'Slut.' Macy said under her breath, yet loud enough so we could hear.

I stood up but Payten put her hand on my shoulder and pushed me back down. Aaron yanked her back to his side. People all around the restaurant were staring at us. The fan that had asked me for the mementos had a stunned look on her face.

I couldn't understand what her problem was; just _one_ fan had asked me for something.

Payten and I finished our meal and had a peaceful yet somewhat tense drive home.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

I showered and got ready to go to Club Alula with Aaron and Macy. Payten and I ate a small dinner, and we both seemed to want to go in with high expectations and good spirits; we exaggeratingly joked around about what _might_ happen.

We drove the 20-minute ride to Alula in a high mood, blasting and singing along to nonsense on the radio. When I at last drove into the parking lot, I started feeling stressed and tired again. We uneasily climbed out of our Escalade- this was not the _best_ neighborhood in Vegas- pecked each other the lips, and held hands walking up to the club. I had only been to Alula a few times before, but I really liked it; it wasn't too packed- you had room to breathe.

Payten was wearing a bright yellow cocktail dress that was sexy but not too revealing along with black Stillettos. "You look hot, babe." I said to her, flashing a smile. She winked back. I squeezed her hand once more when we entered.

A Daft-Punk song was playing in the background of the loud talking that filled the large, dark club. It was filled with bright white booths and black glitter everywhere- it definitely had a modern look to it. We glanced around for Aaron and Macy a few times at the door, and then I hit the bar for a drink while Payten scouted the club.

I quickly ordered a Jackass Ginger and took a sip just as Payten waved me over to a booth on the opposite side of the bar. I pushed past a mob of partiers who looked to be at the most 20 years old. A few of them yelled "HEY it's that dude from that one ghost show!" I smiled and raised my glass.

I made my way to the table and was first met with both Aaron & Payten's smiling faces. I gave Aaron a quick hug then glanced at the girl sitting in the very corner of the booth. It was Macy, looking straight down and playing absent-mindedly with the celery stick in her Bloody Mary. I decided to be the bigger person.

"Hey, Macy." I announced. She looked up, smirked and gave a timid "Hi."

It was better than nothing, I thought. It seemed to be off to a good start- but the other night was off to a good start to, and look where that ended up.

"So," Aaron said, "how have you guys been?"

"We've been great!" Payten said, placing her hand on my left knee. "We've missed you!" Macy looked up at this, presumably wondering if 'you' had included her. Payten gave her a genuine smile and Macy quickly looked down again.

"Yeah, we uh, missed you guys too!" Aaron grabbed Macy's hand and kissed it gently. She smiled a real smile, and I was starting to hope the other night had just been full of stress and anxiety. I wondered if we were all warming up to each other again.

We continued with small talk about the weeks we hadn't seen each other, and the more we talked, the more Macy was into it. At one point Macy and I had switched seats so her and Payten could talk about new dresses they had seen in some boutiques across Vegas. It was 2 in the morning when we wrapped things up and said our goodbyes. The night was perfect, and as Payten- sober and still as beautiful as could be- drove us home, I thought everything was perfect between us all, and that Aaron and Macy were pretty good for each other. I just hope I wasn't jinxing anything.

I had a bad hangover the next day, and Payten pretty much babied me all morning. I was sitting at my dining table munching on some hash browns and eggs she had made me like I was a zombie. The phone rang and Payten yelled from the kitchen, "It's Aaron!" I asked her pick it up since I wasn't in any mood to talk, as usual.

"Hello?" she asked politely. She was on the phone for a few minutes before she came into the doorway near the table I was at. She stood there with a shocked expression on her face, still holding the phone to her ear. I could hear what seemed to be Aaron's voice in a hurried pace. Payten kept trying to get a word in but I assumed Aaron was in a hurried position. I pushed back my plate and was looking at her with a curious expression. What was he saying?

She finally said "Well I'll talk to him about it. Yes. Okay. Thanks Aaron; goodbye."

She ended the call and sat down next to me, staring blankly at the phone in her hands.

"What the hell happened?" I asked.

She paused then said "Aaron… he said Macy had ranted this morning about how bad of people we are! I'm seriously shocked, Zak! She seemed so polite and genuine last night! I thought we had a great time… I don't know if it was something I said…" she trailed off.

"What exactly did Aaron say she said?"

"Apparently she could 'sense how low of people we are, that we're taking advantage of the show to boost our lives up'." Payten replied.

"What! What, does she think she knows us perfectly well or something?"

"I don't know. The only idea she could have gotten that reasoning from is possibly when I said 'now that Zak is on such a highly rated and popular show, we both get to live large!' but I really didn't mean it like anything negative! We were both talking about spending more since Ghost Adventures has gotten so popular!"

I pondered why Macy would really think we're shallow people. We were really more than perfectly kind to her last night.

"I'm gonna call Aaron myself." I stated. Payten looked at me nervously, but I wasn't thinking twice about it. I took my dishes to the sink, took an Advil, and she handed me the phone. I stood looking out my kitchen window to our beautiful, wide backyard. It featured a large swimming pool with a fountain in the center that served as the water filter. There was also a barbeque, fire pit, and outdoor bar and chairs. Palm and bamboo trees bordered the yard, hiding the wooden fence behind them.

"I'm going to Elyse's today to knit with her, but I'll be back by 4 so we can have dinner together." Payten called from our room. I heard her come back down and grab her keys. I paced over to her, and held her for at least 2 minutes. "Be careful." I finally whispered. We kissed, she opened the door, and left. I stared down at the phone again. 'What the hell are you doing being with Macy, Aaron?' I thought.

I found a comfortable spot out next to our pool outside and pressed 'redial' on the phone. I took a deep breath and waited for an answer.

"Hello?" Aaron said.

"Hey Aaron, it's Zak" I said calmly.

"Oh hey. I'm guessing you heard what happened from Payten."

"Yeah. Not the full story, I presume. But tell me; what the hell?"

"Okay," Aaron started, "I'll tell you. I woke up this morning to Macy in my kitchen. I have to admit I jumped to the sight of her-"

"Wait why was she in your house?" I was a bit creeped out already.

"She has a key to the front door." Aaron replied. "But anyway, I asked her what she was doing here, and she asked to talk to me. The first thing she said was 'Zak and Payten are bad people, Aaron.' I was immediately shocked, so I disagreed. But she went on with how 'low of people you are' so I asked her why she thought so. She said how she 'could just sense it- how shallow you two are'. I honestly have no idea. Macy went further on about 'how phony you are to the fans' and you 'should never be trusted.' By the end of our conversation she was yelling over and over that I should end my friendship with you."

I was shocked. Who was this girl to judge me, let alone try and make Aaron end our friendship. _And_ judging Payten? Payten was as sweet as ever to Macy. I was speechless.

"I'm just as weirded out as you, Zak. I'm sorry dude. I told her to calm down and leave when I could get a hold of her." He said. There was a long pause between us..

"Please tell me you're going to stop seeing her, Aaron. That chick…" I trailed.

There was another long pause before Aaron said, "I'm not sure, bro. I'm going to be thinking about everything while we have the next two weeks to film; by ourselves!" He was right about that. We started filming for the new season the next two weeks. San Francisco, then to Santa Cruz, then down to San Diego. I reminded myself to fill Nick in on everything later today.

"You should start thinking about it today; unless of course you really want a 'you and Macy' over our friendship, Aaron." I was getting a bit angry at him. "Payten will be dropping us off at Mccarran tomorrow morning. We'll be at your place at about 6."

"Kay. See you guys then" he replied.

"See ya."

I hung up and stared at my pool for a few minutes. I rolled up my jeans and dipped my feet in the water, thinking about last night, the next two weeks, Macy, and Aaron. I was really shocked that he had to even _think_ about dropping this girl, or holding on to her and threatening his and my friendship.

Payten got home at about 4:15, and we went out to dinner at our favorite Spanish restaurant, 'Feugo e Hielo'. Our topic of conversation was about the next two weeks, we both really didn't want to think about any drama. I loved Payten for that; she didn't like conflict or drama. She really was perfect to me.

The next morning, I woke up to a real shock.


End file.
